Here are some of the pictures she took of our sassy girl....
And our other sweet baby, Aubrey...
Sisterly love....
And what would have been our Christmas card....because they are good pictures so I may as well share them, right?
Monday, October 28, 2013
Fall Family Pics
My sweet friend Kara is such a talented photographer. I honestly think she doesn't realize just how good she is....if she did she would probably charge me more ;) She has done my maternity pictures, baby shower, MollyKate's baby pictures, her 1st Birthday, and our most recent girly shoot. We also had her do some family photos for our Christmas card which turned out great. Originally I planned to use our pregnancy announcement as our Christmas card, but now we won't be doing that after all. You can read about that here.
Here are some of the pictures she took of our sassy girl....
And our other sweet baby, Aubrey...
Sisterly love....
And what would have been our Christmas card....because they are good pictures so I may as well share them, right?
Here are some of the pictures she took of our sassy girl....
And our other sweet baby, Aubrey...
Sisterly love....
And what would have been our Christmas card....because they are good pictures so I may as well share them, right?
Trying New Things
I have been all about finding ways to save money lately. I scoured Pinterest and came across plenty of tips...some not so reasonable. For example, I have been searching for weeks for ground beef that is $1/lb because some woman on a money saving blog says she only buys meat when it is this cheap. After weeks of searching, my mom finally let me know that I will NEVER eat meat if that is the price I plan to buy it at! Some of these woman make their own soap, laundry detergent, make their own clothes, and grow all their own produce. That all sounds just wonderful....and totally beyond my scope of homemaking. I did find however, that a lot of these women make their own bread. How hard can that be?
I called my mom and asked to borrow her bread maker that I remember from my childhood. I brought it home and dusted it off, poured in all my ingredients, and set the timer. After about 2 hours the house started smelling FAB! My inner fat girl was going crazy. The timer finally went off and.....um....there was flour still sitting there. And the yeast was on top of that. Nothing had mixed together. I took out the canister and realized that I had not pushed the canister all the way in to begin with. None of the ingredients mixed...total fail.
Long story short I dumped it all out and tried again and it turned out great! I only have done the basic white bread so far, but I have found recipes for cinnamon raisin and another for how to make bread bowls for soup. I will let ya'll know how those turn out!
I called my mom and asked to borrow her bread maker that I remember from my childhood. I brought it home and dusted it off, poured in all my ingredients, and set the timer. After about 2 hours the house started smelling FAB! My inner fat girl was going crazy. The timer finally went off and.....um....there was flour still sitting there. And the yeast was on top of that. Nothing had mixed together. I took out the canister and realized that I had not pushed the canister all the way in to begin with. None of the ingredients mixed...total fail.
Long story short I dumped it all out and tried again and it turned out great! I only have done the basic white bread so far, but I have found recipes for cinnamon raisin and another for how to make bread bowls for soup. I will let ya'll know how those turn out!
Weekend Wrap Up
This weekend was a very slow in which was warmly welcomed after the crazy week that we've had. Aubrey was visiting her mom this weekend so it was just the three of us. I spent most of the day Friday cleaning and catching up on laundry while Daniel was at work. Friday night MollyKate and I joined my parents at Moe's BBQ. It is in the old Pure Taqueria building in downtown Matthews. If you have not been you must try it! I had the wings and accompanied it with mac and cheese, collard greens, and jalapeño cornbread. Yum! We spend the rest of the evening catching up with Daniels brother he has been staying with us some. It has been really nice making up for lost time with him. For those of you who know that story, do you know that this is an answer to prayer.
Saturday we spent most of the day working at "the flipper". My parents have bought a house to flip and we have been working day and night to get it done. (Well, maybe not me as much since I have the kids... That definitely everyone else). My parents took MollyKate to dinner so that Daniel and I could have some alone time. We got Texas Roadhouse to go and sat down together to eat in peace and quiet. I cannot remember the last time that happened.
MollyKate came home and I guess because of not having a nap all day, she was overly tired. What was supposed to be me and Daniels movie night, turned into me and Daniel and MollyKate's movie night. We just had to laugh it off because that is just life with kids.
Sunday we had family dinner with my parents like we always do, and then went to Costco to buy a few things. Pretty exciting huh? I did get to try out some new recipes this weekend that I will share in my next post.
Hope everyone else had a great fall weekend!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Empty Hands
It has been a week of emotional highs and lows here in the Milsap house. Aubrey spent her first weekend away from us, which was approached with tears and lots of hugs...not to mention Internet research on "how to make visitation easier". We let her take her 2 favorite stuffed animals, which she requested spraying with my perfume, and a few family pictures. She said she had an "kind of fun time but I really missed my home and my family so I was ready to come back." The timing really could not have worked out better though....because little did I know when we sent her off on Thursday morning, what was about to happen over the weekend.
Let me backtrack a bit....
Last Saturday, Daniel took the girls to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast to give me some much needed Mommy sanity time. I had been feeling a little off and since Daniel had been using the "not trying but not not trying approach to"...ahem....things....here lately, I thought maybe I should just take a test a see. At that moment, I kid you not, the song "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" began playing in my head. I was floored, literally, when the results said PREGNANT. I fell to my knees weeping. What a more perfect time than this to find out we were expecting than the day after we finally landed primary custody of our sweet Aubrey?! I spent a few moments praising the Lord and then started running laps around my room. I called my sweet grandma-in-law to share the news and she wept with me as we talked about not only the timing now, but how different it felt this time, now that Daniel and I are married. I truly felt like this was my reward for being faithful for the past almost 2 years through the trials we have been through as a family.
We had family photos the next day (because I am determined to send out our Christmas card this year BEFORE Christmas actually arrives). I got the idea from my friend to write on a chalkboard "Arriving June 2014" and hand it to Daniel during the shoot. This way I would have a picture of me sharing the news with him. It worked out wonderfully, although my husband's initial guess as to what was "arriving" was some type of furniture. Gotta love men! We captured some great pictures as a family sharing this moment.
Thursday came and after we dropped Aubrey off, I took MollyKate and her friend Cooper for a run. A few hours later I began what ended up being a miscarriage. I never thought I would say those words about my own life. You hear about others experiencing the loss of their unborn baby, but you never think it will happen to you. At least I didn't. But here now we sit, as I just took another test which read the dreaded words "Not Pregnant" and it is finally sinking in.
Initially, in between the tears and confusion, I was angry with the Lord. I wanted to run those same laps around my room that I ran a few days ago, but this time screaming and shouting and stomping my feet. I forced myself to go to church Sunday although I was sure I would get nothing out of it because I was still throwing my fit on the inside about how unfair this is. I told one of my girlfriends "I just do not understand why my blessing would be ripped from my hands" and all I could envision were my two empty hands.
And then as we were singing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" in church on Sunday (and I was saying "really Lord? I feel like we are rubbing it in here") He began speaking to me. He once again softened my heart and began to show me the beginnings of the lesson for me in this. While I feel like my baby was taken from me, I now have empty hands to pick up the two I do have and love them even more. I am complaining about losing my #3 when others are not even able to have their #1. I have empty hands to worship the Lord for every blessing that I DO have. My hands have been left empty to love my husband even harder, to pick up my Bible and read it more, to serve more than I do now. And while I am sure this is not the end of my tears, I am comforted in knowing that I do serve a God who loves me enough to wait while I throw my temper tantrum and then once again opens my heart and shows me that He loves me enough to teach me through this.
Let me backtrack a bit....
Last Saturday, Daniel took the girls to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast to give me some much needed Mommy sanity time. I had been feeling a little off and since Daniel had been using the "not trying but not not trying approach to"...ahem....things....here lately, I thought maybe I should just take a test a see. At that moment, I kid you not, the song "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" began playing in my head. I was floored, literally, when the results said PREGNANT. I fell to my knees weeping. What a more perfect time than this to find out we were expecting than the day after we finally landed primary custody of our sweet Aubrey?! I spent a few moments praising the Lord and then started running laps around my room. I called my sweet grandma-in-law to share the news and she wept with me as we talked about not only the timing now, but how different it felt this time, now that Daniel and I are married. I truly felt like this was my reward for being faithful for the past almost 2 years through the trials we have been through as a family.
We had family photos the next day (because I am determined to send out our Christmas card this year BEFORE Christmas actually arrives). I got the idea from my friend to write on a chalkboard "Arriving June 2014" and hand it to Daniel during the shoot. This way I would have a picture of me sharing the news with him. It worked out wonderfully, although my husband's initial guess as to what was "arriving" was some type of furniture. Gotta love men! We captured some great pictures as a family sharing this moment.
Thursday came and after we dropped Aubrey off, I took MollyKate and her friend Cooper for a run. A few hours later I began what ended up being a miscarriage. I never thought I would say those words about my own life. You hear about others experiencing the loss of their unborn baby, but you never think it will happen to you. At least I didn't. But here now we sit, as I just took another test which read the dreaded words "Not Pregnant" and it is finally sinking in.
Initially, in between the tears and confusion, I was angry with the Lord. I wanted to run those same laps around my room that I ran a few days ago, but this time screaming and shouting and stomping my feet. I forced myself to go to church Sunday although I was sure I would get nothing out of it because I was still throwing my fit on the inside about how unfair this is. I told one of my girlfriends "I just do not understand why my blessing would be ripped from my hands" and all I could envision were my two empty hands.
And then as we were singing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" in church on Sunday (and I was saying "really Lord? I feel like we are rubbing it in here") He began speaking to me. He once again softened my heart and began to show me the beginnings of the lesson for me in this. While I feel like my baby was taken from me, I now have empty hands to pick up the two I do have and love them even more. I am complaining about losing my #3 when others are not even able to have their #1. I have empty hands to worship the Lord for every blessing that I DO have. My hands have been left empty to love my husband even harder, to pick up my Bible and read it more, to serve more than I do now. And while I am sure this is not the end of my tears, I am comforted in knowing that I do serve a God who loves me enough to wait while I throw my temper tantrum and then once again opens my heart and shows me that He loves me enough to teach me through this.
Friday, October 11, 2013
I'm Back
In light on all of the impending custody hearing drama, I had to shut down my blog for a bit. Some things were posted about my blog and in an effort to try to rise above the drama, I made myself private for a while until the storms blew over. I find it flattering I suppose, that people are that interested in what I have to say.
Over the past 2 months, the Lord has really spoken to me about this outlet however. I know the Lord blessed me with an ability to write. I have been told that many a time. I have had people approach me when I have been out to eat that said "Hey I read your blog and I love it!" That is so humbling to me! That anyone would take the time to read anything I have to say is so dear to my heart. It has really been on my heart to start writing again. While I was browsing Beth Moore's site the other day, I saw where she Tweeted something recently. It said, "In Christ, you are enormously gifted. You have an unseen enemy who is after that gift. 2 Tim. 1:14 says to protect that good thing entrusted to you." I feel like this was God speaking directly to me and so in a step of faith and obedience, I am back! I know the Lord will protect me from the negativity. If anyone has something negative to say, have at it! Jesus was persecuted, and so if me writing about His goodness in my life brings about the same to me, then so be it.
Over the past 2 months, the Lord has really spoken to me about this outlet however. I know the Lord blessed me with an ability to write. I have been told that many a time. I have had people approach me when I have been out to eat that said "Hey I read your blog and I love it!" That is so humbling to me! That anyone would take the time to read anything I have to say is so dear to my heart. It has really been on my heart to start writing again. While I was browsing Beth Moore's site the other day, I saw where she Tweeted something recently. It said, "In Christ, you are enormously gifted. You have an unseen enemy who is after that gift. 2 Tim. 1:14 says to protect that good thing entrusted to you." I feel like this was God speaking directly to me and so in a step of faith and obedience, I am back! I know the Lord will protect me from the negativity. If anyone has something negative to say, have at it! Jesus was persecuted, and so if me writing about His goodness in my life brings about the same to me, then so be it.
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